PerronStation chat

Privacy Policy

Last updated 13 July 2026

Perron is built to hold as little about you as possible. You are anonymous by default, and you can use every part of the app that way. This policy explains what Perron does and does not collect — and, if you choose to sign in, the little that changes.

Anonymous by default

You don't have to create an account, and no feature is behind one. Your device holds an anonymous identifier used only to attribute your own messages to you within a room. It carries no name, no email and no phone number, it is not linked to your identity, and it never leaves the app as one.

If you sign in (optional)

Signing in exists for exactly one reason: your passport lives on your phone, so it would be lost with the phone. An account backs it up and carries it — and Perron+, if you have it — to another device. Nothing else is behind it.

If you sign in with Apple or Google, we store the stable identifier that provider gives us, plus an email address if the provider supplies one. Apple's Hide My Email is fully supported and we never see your real address. If you sign in with an email address, we send a six-digit code to it and store the address once you prove you can receive mail there; the code itself is stored only as a one-way hash, is usable once, and dies within ten minutes.

That is the whole of it: an identifier and an address. No name, no photo, no contacts, no social graph, and no password — Perron has none to store, and none to lose. We never ask a provider for anything beyond identity, and signing in does not change what is collected anywhere else in this policy.

If you buy Perron+, we record Apple's transaction identifier so the subscription can be recognised on your other devices. We do not receive or store your payment details — Apple handles that and does not share them with us.

Location

Perron is location-based: it uses your device location to check whether you are at a railway station and to open that station's chat. Location is used in the moment and then discarded. Perron does not store a history of where you have been, and never records a coordinate trail. Your exact coordinates are not attached to your messages.

Messages and content

Messages you post to a chat, wall or Q&A are stored so others in that place can read them, and are removed when the room or post expires (chat and disruption rooms are ephemeral; wall posts decay on their own). Content is anonymous — shown with a chosen display name, not your identity.

Analytics

Perron keeps aggregate, privacy-preserving usage counts (for example, how many people opened a station screen or checked in) to understand how the app is used. These are counts only — they carry no user identifier and no location. To estimate how many distinct devices use the app, an irreversible one-way hash of the anonymous device id is counted and swept on a short retention; it cannot be traced back to a person or a device.

Push notifications

If you enable notifications, your device's push token is stored so we can send you messages from rooms you are in and disruption alerts for the station you are currently at — once you leave, those alerts stop. You can turn notifications off at any time in the app or your device settings.

Rail data

Station, departure and disruption information comes from open (CC0) public transport data. Using Perron does not share your travel with any transport operator.

Third parties

The app talks only to Perron's own servers (on Cloudflare) and Apple's push service. It does not include third-party advertising or tracking SDKs.

Your controls

Erase this device, in the Profile tab, deletes everything Perron holds for you: your passport, your cosmetics and settings, and — if you signed in — the account, the provider identifier and the email address with it. Where you signed in with Apple, Perron also asks Apple to revoke the sign-in, so the app stops appearing under your Apple ID rather than merely being forgotten on our side. Nothing is held back, and there is no waiting period.

You can also simply sign out: Perron carries on working anonymously, which is its normal state. To request removal of a specific message, contact us.

Children

Perron is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update the date above.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email perron@thenextbeacon.com.